The present invention relates to chairs for use in offices and in institutional settings such as patient care facilities.
Special purpose patient chairs are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,139 to the above-identified inventor. Similar chairs having broader application are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,435 to the same inventor, both patents being commonly owned with the instant invention, the disclosures thereof being incorporated herein by this reference. Disclosed therein are laterally spaced seat and back-supporting members that are formed of high-strength spring material and having a flexible member extending therebetween for forming seat and back portions of the respective chairs. The seat and back-supporting members, which are rigidly spaced apart by a plurality of cross-members, have reverse curvature for providing lumbar support by the back portion. The above chairs are adapted for facilitating cleanliness in that the flexible members are thin, perforate and non-absorbent, having imperforate margins that enclose upper extremities of the seat and back-supporting members in a shape having low plan surface area at the top of the chairs to avoid collecting food or other waste matter.
The '139 patent discloses a chair having arms extending forwardly of the seat and having rigid front supports, the seat and back-supporting members being connected to the front supports for imparting significant springiness to the chair seat and back to enable infirm patients to easily rise from the seat while grasping the arms proximate the front supports. The '435 patent discloses a chair having arms extending forwardly to rigid supports that are approximately even with the seat front, the seat and back-supporting members being attached to the rigid front supports with resilient mountings for preserving a desired degree of springiness with the seat and back-supporting members being significantly foreshortened as compared with the '139 disclosure. In applications not requiring extreme ease of egress, the '435 disclosure provides a chair that is significantly more compact and inexpensive to produce. However, in some related applications the springiness of the above chairs is actually excessive, being potentially distractive to occupants of the chairs and persons nearby. Also, the seat and back-supporting members of the '435 chair remain undesirably expensive to produce, and they require critical quality assurance and monitoring.
Inexpensive, rigid chairs are known, and tensile sling chairs also include "director's chairs", "butterfly" lawn-type chairs, and outdoor folding chairs. None of the sling chairs is believed to be particularly comfortable, because the supporting structure fails to provide a desired combination of shaping and tensioning of the material of the sling components. It is believed that none of the chairs of the prior art offers a desired combination of comfort, compactness, and compatibility with institutional environments. Thus there is a need for a chair that is suitable for institutional environments, that is particularly comfortable, yet is inexpensive to produce, using a small number of component parts.